15th July 2005, 01:07 AM
Re site huts and handwashing - I once charged my employer ?15/week to use my van as a tea hut with handwashing facilities after they refused to get a mobac.
My experiences with site H&S - I ran a combined building/archaeology project a couple of years ago with unemployed trainees forming the main workforce. I was also responsible for complying with the CDM regulations, and took it all pretty literally.
At the start we organised a manual handling course, and a first aid course so that everyone was qualified for CPR. Then we divided the areas up and did area and task specific risk assessments, copies of which were given to the individuals concerned (no point doing an assessment without showing the site workers, is there?). Then we trained the trainees to do a daily site safety check themselves, and to work out how to make the site safer. Each trainee was given responsibility for the daily inspection, and to take whatever action was highlighted. Some realised they could avoid doing any real work by being extremely vigilant on the inspections.
Everyone was bought PPE - most of which was gone within a week. Hard hats are not supposed to be used once they are dropped on the ground. The wind was such that we had to replace about 20 hats (there were only about 8 on site). Actually we would have had to supply a new hat every day if we wanted to be sure it was safe. 12 months supply of sterile eyewash (10 bottles) were used within 2 weeks, all by one trainee who refused to wear goggles, and we were were working with lime...
The cost of making the site safe was alarming - one assessment noticed that the main pathways were getting muddy, and formed a slipping hazard, which could be alleviated by using duckboards. So we hired in an extra load of scaffolding planks. These were judged to be too dangerous to be used indivually, so the order was doubled so we could sister them. Then we needed to buy some 2X2 and nails to fix the planks together. These obviously got slippy, so we bought in some chicken wire and some U nails, and fixed that to the top. This took one person the best part of a week to put together, and the scaffolding plank hire costs were over ?1000 for the project. I inherited a budget which included a single sum for the entire project, so in the end I had to reduce the amount I claimed for my own part in order to pay for the planks.
I started to wonder how everyone else handled these things - once a hazard had been identified (ie dangerous walkways, unstable masonry) and was recorded on paper, it couldn't be ignored, and action had to be taken. Any accident that occurred as a result of something that was identified as a hazard and had actions that could have reduced the risk, but wasn't acted on - it's obvious where the blame lies. So the answer must be to only record things that can be sorted out easily/cheaply, or not to record things at all.
In the end the H&S probably accounted for 5% of the budget, but no-one got hurt during the 12 months of the project.
My experiences with site H&S - I ran a combined building/archaeology project a couple of years ago with unemployed trainees forming the main workforce. I was also responsible for complying with the CDM regulations, and took it all pretty literally.
At the start we organised a manual handling course, and a first aid course so that everyone was qualified for CPR. Then we divided the areas up and did area and task specific risk assessments, copies of which were given to the individuals concerned (no point doing an assessment without showing the site workers, is there?). Then we trained the trainees to do a daily site safety check themselves, and to work out how to make the site safer. Each trainee was given responsibility for the daily inspection, and to take whatever action was highlighted. Some realised they could avoid doing any real work by being extremely vigilant on the inspections.
Everyone was bought PPE - most of which was gone within a week. Hard hats are not supposed to be used once they are dropped on the ground. The wind was such that we had to replace about 20 hats (there were only about 8 on site). Actually we would have had to supply a new hat every day if we wanted to be sure it was safe. 12 months supply of sterile eyewash (10 bottles) were used within 2 weeks, all by one trainee who refused to wear goggles, and we were were working with lime...
The cost of making the site safe was alarming - one assessment noticed that the main pathways were getting muddy, and formed a slipping hazard, which could be alleviated by using duckboards. So we hired in an extra load of scaffolding planks. These were judged to be too dangerous to be used indivually, so the order was doubled so we could sister them. Then we needed to buy some 2X2 and nails to fix the planks together. These obviously got slippy, so we bought in some chicken wire and some U nails, and fixed that to the top. This took one person the best part of a week to put together, and the scaffolding plank hire costs were over ?1000 for the project. I inherited a budget which included a single sum for the entire project, so in the end I had to reduce the amount I claimed for my own part in order to pay for the planks.
I started to wonder how everyone else handled these things - once a hazard had been identified (ie dangerous walkways, unstable masonry) and was recorded on paper, it couldn't be ignored, and action had to be taken. Any accident that occurred as a result of something that was identified as a hazard and had actions that could have reduced the risk, but wasn't acted on - it's obvious where the blame lies. So the answer must be to only record things that can be sorted out easily/cheaply, or not to record things at all.
In the end the H&S probably accounted for 5% of the budget, but no-one got hurt during the 12 months of the project.
